To You Who Will Kill Me

Chapter 003

“What do you mean…”

I regretted my words as soon as I said them. Here I was, alive and well, claiming that he killed me… It made no sense. I had to come up with a reasonable explanation.

“Noah Ashford killed my health; he killed any chance I had of living a normal life. And yet, I almost died without even knowing the name of the man who ruined me. Why didn’t you tell me? How much of a fool were you planning to make me?”

“How did you find out? Did Scott tell you?”

“What does it matter? Whether I hired someone to find out or not, the point is you lied to me. I had the right to know. I deserved to know.”

Noah Ashford hunted me. I bled, running like a wounded animal.

And not too long ago, the same man slaughtered me again in the most humiliating way possible.

Do they even understand how miserable that feels?

“What else are you keeping from me? Are you ever planning to tell me anything?”

Susan just clammed up, watching me with some unreadable expression. Her silence was maddening.

“If you won’t tell me anything, I won’t tell you anything either.”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“Why? Because it happened before I was born? Or because I don’t know our mother? Sure, I might not fully grasp the situation back then, but neither can you understand what it’s like to be dying. What could you possibly know about this broken body?”

Susan didn’t try to calm me down. She just stood there silently, letting me pour out all my anger.

We were thirteen years apart, the only sisters in the family. That’s why I trusted her so much. That’s why her betrayal hurt so badly.

“I don’t want to see you for a while. And don’t even think about putting someone to spy on me.”

***

After Susan left, Scott sent over some documents in the late evening.

Julia Ashford was from the Chercian Kingdom and had been the mistress of several men, each one more useless than the last.

Her final stop? My father. As for her son, Noah Ashford, no one knows who his real father is.

Noah apparently took after his mother in every way. Julia swore up and down that Noah had White family blood in him.

My father also insisted Noah was his son. But that was just a cheap lie to win her favor.

“Disgusting.”

My mother, even in her weakened state after a premature delivery, didn’t stand by. She stripped my father of all his rights and handed everything to my older brothers, ensuring Julia Ashford couldn’t even take a fork from us.

Julia, who lived in my father’s mansion in the capital, left the city after my father’s carriage accident, and no one knew where she went.

Now, after all this time, she had reappeared in front of me.

***

“Ugh, it’s so filthy.”

The street was littered with garbage and filth. It was fitting as the last moment for a mistress, but not a place where I should be. I closed the carriage window and grumbled to Scott.

“If I have to come here again, my lungs are going to rot. They’re way too fragile for this kind of stench.”

The real question was, how do I make that woman suffer while also drawing out her son?

And where the hell is Noah Ashford anyway? Not even Scott’s network could track him down.

“You’re not lying to me, are you? You *do* know where Noah Ashford is, right?”

“I’ve always been honest with you. Don’t you trust me?”

“Call it reasonable doubt. Nothing escapes Kravitz’s information network.”

“We’re just people, Callie. Not God. We don’t know everything.”

True. We’re all born humans, but some grow up to be beasts while others remain weak.

“We’re here. Be careful. This isn’t a safe area, for men or women. Stay close to me.”

I got off the carriage with Scott’s help. It had been a while since we held hands like this, and it felt strange.

“It feels like we’re back to our childhood.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. Your childhood was a nightmare. Abigail and Isaac together weren’t as stubborn as you. Always crying, screaming… God, you’re the reason I decided to stay single.”

“Don’t blame me for your failed first love.”

“Well, you turned out alright, so I forgive you.”

Scott lightly tapped my back.

Despite being just thirteen years older, he’d always looked after me like a parent. I was grateful.

If Father hadn’t had that affair, would I have been raised by my mother? Or even under Father’s protection?

When Mother died, John was only twenty-one, the oldest of us.

My brothers and I were deprived of a proper family. John, Aaron, Susan, Scott, and Andrew. We had to grow up too fast, and unprepared.

I lost my chance at a normal family forever.

“Was raising me… hard for you?”

“It was hard. But it was worth it.”

I looked up at Scott.

The tallest in our family, he was a head taller than me. As a child, he seemed like a real adult.

But looking back, he was just a young man, far from grown up.

“You didn’t have to do it alone, though,” he added. “We all shared the time, effort, and responsibility.”

“Yeah. I liked it too. I got five times the love.”

Scott smiled faintly. Just then, we arrived at 85 Dalia Street.

“You’re not coming in?”

“I don’t want to see her.”

Scott answered, pulling a candy from his pocket.

“Callie.”

“Yeah?”

“Whatever you do, I’ll support you. And whatever you want, I’ll help you. Don’t forget that.”

His words, telling me to take whatever revenge I wanted, reassured me.

With a slightly nervous heart, I knocked on the door. There was no response, so I knocked again. Finally, I heard a faint voice.

“It’s open. Come in.”

I recognized that kind of voice. It was the sound of someone with lung disease.

I opened the rotting black door.

The place was dark, barely lit. I couldn’t see much, but the smell and stale air told me it was full of dust.

“Cough, cough.”

A woman with a stub of a candle came slowly toward me, coughing. Who still uses candles these days?

Her appearance was pitiful. It was both satisfying and sickening.

Was there any joy in destroying someone who was already in such a miserable condition?

“Are you Julia Ashford?”

“Yes. Who are you? From the city council?”

“Don’t you recognize me?”

I stepped closer to the candlelight. The flickering flame revealed her gaunt face.

Her eyes were just like Noah Ashford’s, sending shivers down my spine.

If I hadn’t taken a sedative before coming, I might’ve had a full-blown panic attack.

“Who…?”

I took out a magic stone and activated it. The bright light illuminated the dim interior.

“Not from the city council, I see. Then who… are you?”

“The red hair is a hallmark of the White family. Seems like you don’t remember the man you rolled around with eighteen years ago.”

“No way…”

Julia Ashford’s nauseating blue eyes trembled violently. Her wrinkled face, visible above her covered mouth, bore the marks of a hard-lived life.

My lips twisted into a bitter smile. It was infuriating that someone as pathetic as she had once held such power over my life.

“I’m Scarlett White. I’ve grown up quite a bit, haven’t I? I thought you’d think of me whenever you looked at your son, but I guess not. That’s a little disappointing.”

“Oh my…”

The woman’s face turned pale, almost blue.

“My father might have lacked in other areas, but he had plenty of money. Seems like he didn’t give you much, though. Your condition is quite amusing.”

“…”

“What are you waiting for? I’m not just any guest; Scarlett White is here. You should either serve me some Mamluq tea or prepare to kneel. But this place… it’s too filthy to even sit down.”

Julia Ashford wobbled slightly, looking like she might drop the candle any moment as her body trembled.

I stepped closer and blew out the candle in her hand. Then, with a smile, I said, “Careful now. We wouldn’t want a fire. My lungs are weak, and enduring this stench is already tough.”

“Miss White. My goodness… you’ve grown so much.”

“Did you think I’d die? Or were you hoping for it?”

“No, no, not at all. It’s just a relief to see you looking well—”

“Well? Do I look *well* to you? Ha!”

Every breath I took seemed to drag me further down, into a bottomless pit.

Julia Ashford’s condition wasn’t much different from mine, which made me angry. She had no idea how infuriating it was.

‘Calm down. Now’s not the time to get angry.’

Finding Noah Ashford and killing him comes first.

So, I forced my anger down and glanced around the house. It was small and dirty. That was all there was to it.

“Your son isn’t here. The one who claims to be the youngest of the White family.”

“He’s out on an errand.”

The lie was obvious.

Noah Ashford had vanished without a trace. Someone like him can’t be around here without Kravitz’s network knowing.

“Really? What a shame. I wanted to see how much he resembled me. Does Noah have red hair?”

“No, he’s blonde.”

“And his eyes? Are they gray like mine? Or blue like yours?”

“He takes after me. But Noah is definitely Mr. White’s son.”

“What did you want so badly that you approached a man with five children? The Senate seat and the noble title belong to John. The railroad to Aaron, the bank to Susan, and the shipping business to Andrew. What else could you have wanted? Oh, was it the mine since I wasn’t around then? Or cash? Real estate? Well, anything from the Whites tends to be quite dazzling.”

The words spilled out of me so fast I could barely breathe. My chest heaved with the effort, and I felt a wave of dizziness crash over me.

Even with my head spinning, I kept talking.

I couldn’t stop. Every word I spat out was just a tiny fraction of my boiling pain.

“Miss White. It’s not as simple as you think. We were really—”

“Rubbish. Kravitz found out you were already pregnant before meeting my father. What did you want so badly that you became his mistress?”

Julia Ashford’s face turned deathly pale as she trembled.

“…Noah is Mr. White’s son. He acknowledged him. He promised me—promised me that Noah would always be his son.”

A promise? My father must have really liked her to acknowledge a child that wasn’t his.

The thought of being such a man’s daughter made me sick, and I felt an urge to drain every drop of my blood.

I was losing patience. I couldn’t take this situation any longer.

“Where’s your son?”

“Noah went out on an errand.”

“Where is he hiding? I know he’s missing.”

A shadow fell over the woman’s face.

She knows where her son is. She also knows I’m not looking for him with good intentions. Even so, she must tell me.

“If you don’t speak, I’ll erase your son’s identity. He won’t be able to live as a proper person ever again. I’ll issue a warrant, and once we find Noah Ashford, he’ll be sent as a slave to the northern mines.”

“…”

“You know, right? The White family has power in politics and society. Destroying you and your son wouldn’t just be easy—it’d be effortless.”

Having the power to be cruel is a delightful thing.

I smiled broadly, knowing I had every intention of throwing him into the gutter.

After a moment’s hesitation, Julia Ashford kneeled before me.

“Please find Noah. I’m begging you!”